1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an interior member, and particularly, to an instrument panel. In particular, the present invention relates to an interior member that suppresses a decrease in a load-bearing capacity in front of a driver's seat and a passenger's seat in the case where no steering support beam is provided and that contributes to a decrease in the weight of the instrument panel.
2. Related Art
A known steering member, which is one of interior members, has an inlet and an outlet for air from an air conditioner and has a hollow shape extending over the entire width of a vehicle cabin and a double structure (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-165323). The use of such a steering member enables, for instance, a decrease in cost, and a decrease in the total weight of the interior members at the front of the vehicle cabin.
Removal of a heavy component is an exemplary method for decreasing the weight of, for instance, an interior member. From the perspective of a decrease in the weight of the interior members such as an instrument panel and an internal part of the instrument panel at the front of the vehicle cabin, removal of a steering support beam, which is an instance of a heavy component, has been considered.
In many cases, the steering support beam is a metal member having a large diameter to sustain a load in the width direction of a vehicle in the case of a side impact. The instrument panel itself is a resin plate and has a low strength. Therefore, the steering support beam, which is disposed in the instrument panel independently of the outer surface of the instrument panel, provides the load-bearing capacity in front of the driver's seat and the passenger's seat in the vehicle cabin, and thus inner members disposed in the instrument panel are fixed to the steering support beam.
The structure and the performance of the instrument panel are thus dependent on the steering support beam, and removal of the steering support beam is impractical.